CHILDHOOD AND ITS IMPORTANCE

79 When the child goes to school he enters a society wider than that of his family, and he is initiated into the society of adults in an intensive way that absorbs a great part of his resources and concerns. He gets his first experience of working in school (cf. GE, 5).

Before this point, the family served a mediating role between the child and the People of God. But now the child is ready to begin sharing directly in the life of the Church, and can be admitted to the sacraments.

The child’s intelligence develops gradually. Catechesis must be adapted to this mental development. The child seeks to understand the religious lite of adults. Accordingly, the genuine Christian life of the adult community helps very much toward giving the children a solid formation, and it does this in a truly instructive way when it explains the religious life of adults and the activities of the People of God suitably in the light of salvation history.

The initial experience of working should not be thought unrelated to the aim of catechesis. The joy of doing things and doing them well, co-operation with others, discipline arising out of this as something easy to understand and reasonable—in all this one finds many experiences which are useful not only for sharing in social life but also for active participation in the life of the Church.

With these things in mind, catechetical pedagogy, whatever method it follows, should stimulate activity on the part of the children. If it should fail to do so, catechesis could not satisfy its obligation to teach the believer to give an ever more personal response to the word and the gift of God. This active pedagogy should not be satisfied with external expressions only, however useful they may be, but it should strive to bring forth a response from the heart and a taste for prayer. This interior education is indeed rendered more difficult, but also more necessary, because of the character of contemporary civilisation which tends to disperse spiritual energies.

Co-operation between catechists and parents (sharing with one another their opinions about programs, about methods, and about difficulties which arise) is necessary if the education of the children is to proceed in a suitable and harmonious way. This kind of co-operation is useful for both the catechists and the parents and helps them in carrying out their own specific duties.